Hearts in Atlantis
by Jebediah Sprinklefield
Summary: Imagine this: You're captured by the Wraith and stuck trying to escape from a Hive ship. But you want to know the really, really annoying part? You're not even one of the main characters! SheppardxOC FRIENDSHIP!
1. Meeting

A/N: Just to clarify, this is NOT a SheppardxOC romance. It is simply a way of expressing some of what goes on in Atlantis. It's basically how Sheppard befriends one of the 'little people' of the expedition, and how even though they might not be in the forefront, there are still other people around that are important to the success of the Atlantis expedition. Please forgive me if Captain Webb seems a little sue-ish at the moment, she's not, but I might not have her personality ironed out for a few chapters yet. To be honest, I don't think this story has gone the way I originally planned it, but I got the idea for it almost two years ago now, and while I'm pretty sure I wrote at least three chapters in one of my school books from a few years ago, I can't for the life of me find it so I decided t work from memory instead. Oh, and also note that when I began to plan this fic, we had just reached the end of season one. John's promotion should feature in about chapter three if you decide you want me to continue. If not, I'm afraid he'll have to be a Major until the end of time.

SGASGASGA

The view seen from any one of Atlantis' many balconies is always breathtaking. One can see the seamless blue ocean as it rises, swirls and falls around the city's piers, and the most beautiful architecture in two galaxies can be marvelled at while the planet's soft breeze mingles it's delicious coolness with the balcony's visitor.

It comes as no surprise, then, that most all of Atlantis' current inhabitants liked to visit the balconies as often as was possible. The best time to visit, it was known, was always at sunset, just as the last rays of the solar system's sun drift over the horizon, illuminating the skies with a rainbow of colours.

It was one such evening that Atlantis' ranking military officer, Major John Sheppard, decided to pay a visit to his favourite balcony after finishing a rather exhausting mission report regarding the loss of a ZPM to some crazy people who wanted to reform a secret brotherhood that had been destroyed hundreds of years before.

Sighing, he stepped out into the cool breeze. Relishing the gentle sounds of the ocean, he noticed that he was not alone on the balcony when he heard the small sobs which permeated the evening air. Looking around the corner he saw a young woman sitting with her back against the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest wither arms locked around them. She was wearing standard issue Atlantis military BDU's, so he guessed she must have been one of the recruits he still hadn't gotten around to meeting yet.

"Hey, are you ok?" he asked the crying woman. She jumped slightly, obviously not having realised someone was there. Looking up and seeing the face of her CO, she jumped to her feet and stood at attention, throwing him a shaky salute.

"Sorry sir, I didn't see you."

"That's alright. At ease, soldier," she shot him a thankful look, before wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Are you alright," he asked with concern.

She sniffled a little, but tried to hide it, "Yeah, I'm," she wiped her eyes again, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure, because you don't really seem fine to me. You want to talk about it?"

"Not really, sir. I'm just trying to deal with it for now…"

John understood. Sometimes you just had to take the time to get thinks through your own head first. How do you try to explain to other people when you don't even know what to think yourself? Realising they hadn't been introduced before, he held out his hand politely, "I'm Major John Sheppard, ma'am, it's nice to meet you."

That elected a small smile, "Captain Michelle Webb, sir. Pleasure's all mine."

"You can call me John."

"Thankyou sir – I mean, thankyou _John_. You can call me Michelle."

Pleasantries accounted for, the pair looked out over the ocean in companionable silence for a while, John lost in his thoughts and Michelle sniffling a little every now and then, occasionally wiping her eyes, but manages not to burst out into fully-fledged tears again.

"Me and James – Markham – we met at the Air Force Academy two years ago," She began after a while, feeling the need to get it off her chest, so to speak. Major Sheppard was much obliged to listen. He knew how hard it was to spill your guts to someone, especially someone you barely knew. He nodded for her to continue.

"He was a good man. Always tried to do the right thing, even if it wasn't always the best thing to do… I still can't believe he's gone. I just keep expecting him come waltzing out of the jumper bay with one of his stupid remarks about how he wished he could see the look on his old history teacher's face if she knew where he was now…but I know that it's not going to happen. It's never going to happen ever again, I'm never going to get to hear his voice or see him laugh, and it's just _kills_ me, inside, to know he's gone and he's never coming back." Tears were winding their way down he cheeks again now, but she made no move to wipe them away.

"He was…we were…James and I were engaged. This is the balcony he proposed to me on," she fiddled tensely with the delicate gold and silver ring that graced the ring finger of her left hand. It was a beautiful little piece of art, with gold and silver marbled together and inset with gorgeous deep blue sapphires and pink diamonds. "It was the night after that 'Jumper had been lodged in the Stargate. He said he'd wanted to propose to me for ages, he'd even had the ring made before we left Earth, but he just couldn't work up the courage. After the 'Jumper got stuck he realised just how dangerous life in the Pegasus Galaxy was…" she roughly swiped away the tears with her sleeve. "Anyway, you probably have better things to do than listen to me whine. I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's ok. Markham was a good man and a good soldier. He deserves to be remembered," John comforted.

"I'm just having a hard time getting my head around it. Everything was going so well, now everything's gone." She looked out solemnly over the ocean.

"I have an idea. It might not be much, but I can guarantee it'll make you feel a little better. Why don't we go down to the mess hall, grab some food and chat a bit?" she turned to look at him and he could see the gratitude shining in her eyes.

"Thankyou sir. You have no idea how grateful I am. For everything."

The walk to the commissary was an amicable one, full of light-hearted banter in Sheppard's effort to help cheer the Captain up a little. Neither of them had any idea exactly how it happened, but the next thing they knew they were engaged in a no-holds-barred game of '20 Questions'.

"So, real age?" she asked, smirking, as they both munched on turkey sandwiches.

"Aww, now that would be telling!" he grinned as she slapped his arm gently.

"Come on! If I have to tell, you do too!"

"Fine then, you go first!"

"I'm twenty two. Now you?"

"I'm…not telling!"

"Hey! That's not fair!" she poked her tongue out at him with a mock scowl.

"Well, life not fair!" he commented, returning the gesture. "Besides, I'm the ranking military officer here, and what I say goes," he said with a very serious air. Unfortunately he only managed to hold it for a matter of seconds before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Fine then, but you _have_ to answer the next one, _and_ I reserve the right to skip a question later."

"Sounds fair to me. Shoot."

Michelle grinned evilly, "What's a secret you would _hate_ for people to know about you."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! It wouldn't be a secret if I told you! And if I have to answer this question then so do you!"

"Alright. But you first."

Major Sheppard to a deep breath, then mumbled something completely unintelligible.

"What was that, John? I didn't quite get it, you'll have to speak up."

He glared at her looking very disgruntled, but spoke up eventually, "I completed a PhD in Mathematics, but I didn't accept the diploma. And if that _ever_ gets out, you are _so_ out of a job!"

Michelle smiled, "Alright, as long as you don't tell anyone _my_ secret," she looked around as if to check that no-one was listening, before whispering, "I have a degree Applied Sciences. If anyone knew that it would _totally_ be the end of my career. It's hard enough to be respected as it is, and that's _without_ people knowing that I'm a nerd in disguise."

"I know _exactly _how you feel. So, worse habit or personality trait?"

"I love t fade into the woodwork. It's great; you never know what you're gonna hear when you're a random gate room techie. Higher ups tend to forget that we have ears. We know a lot more than you guys think we do."

He raised an eyebrow, "I'll have to remember that next time I'm having an important discussion in the gate room."

The game continued in a very light manner for a while, before turning to some more serious topics. By that time both of them had finished their food, and were now engaged in a game of with a deck of cards they managed to snag of one of the scientists.

Sheppard chanced a glance over at Michelle, gauging whether or not his next question would be relevant. He could see it though, a little speck in the corner of her eyes that told him what he needed to know.

"You been a POW?" he asked, keeping his eyes lowered to his cards.

She too kept her eyes down, and for a moment he thought she wasn't going to answer. "Three months. Iraq. Unpleasant," she replied finally.

"Fourteen weeks. Afghanistan. Equally unpleasant."

"We took some fire, my co-pilot was killed and I was forced to eject. Right in the middle of enemy territory. I ended up stealing a few components to build a small homing beacon device and set it to the last frequency I knew the USAF to be using. Did you…Did you count _every_ minute of it? Even without a watch, just listening to the seconds tick by?"

"Fourteen weeks, two days, twelve hours and six minutes. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say about 26 seconds. You never forget how long it was. Ended up having to get myself out. After two months I gave up on the hope of a rescue mission. When I was finally free they told me that they were still waiting on authorisation for a rescue mission. It would have been at least another two weeks before they had even begun to put one together. Since then I've never really respected the proper chain of command."

"That's why you never leave people behind. Because you know what it's like to be the one left behind," John nodded.

They would have talked longer, but Major Sheppard's comm. went off, Dr Zelenka had something he wanted to clear with Sheppard about the hive ships approaching Atlantis, hoping that if John thought the plan was alright they could then take it to Dr Weir. Michelle volunteered to take his tray, allowing him to go 'save Atlantis', as she put it.

As she and Sheppard were getting up to leave, Michelle spoke up again, "Just one thing, sir? Can I request to be placed on the active duty roster? Since being here I've been a techie, but we're going to need all the manpower we can get if we're going to save Atlantis. That means more people in the field."

John nodded, "I'll set you up with a team as soon as I can. You're right. If we're going to win this thing we're going to need all hands on deck. Thanks."

She just smiled and waved him off. With a last glance, they both moved off to continue their day's duties. What they had, had been a brief reprieve. Both of them knew that it was probably the last respite they would have for weeks. The Wraith were on their doorstep, and from here on in they had a war to attend to.

SGASGASGA

Like it? Hate it? Think I should continue, or spare you by giving it up now? REVIEW and tell me. I do have the second chapter written up, and I think I'll post it if I get to, say…ten reviews. Does that sound reasonable?

Coming up:

Chapter 2 – Breaking

"_Dr Beckett, I'm going to need a medical team to the East Pier. We have two officers down, both with possible head injuries and one with possible internal bleeding. Also, if you can manage it please send a stretcher. We haven't ruled out the possibility of spinal damage."_


	2. Breaking

Well, here it is, chapter two. Hope you like it. If not, I'm a pyromaniac, so unleash the fire! It's a bit of a twist, but meh. I know I haven't reached 10 reviews, but I'm not likely to, so I decided to update anyway. Thankyou to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I hope you keep enjoying the story.

Pammie (I would have sent you an email or a PM or something, but there was no address) – Thankyou for your review. I know my spelling and grammar aren't always that great, but I have this really nasty habit of being completely incapable of proof -reading my work. I know what you mean about not being able to read stories if they have really bad spelling and such. I have a pet hate for stories that use chatspeak, especially when they use the words '2' and 'u'. And as for needing a Beta…like OMG! I have never had a Beta before. I didn't really think my writing was good enough, so I never even considered having one. Most of the writers you see with Betas are either really, really good writers (Such as Titan5 – if you're reading this: YOU ROCK!) or writers that have friends who are into fan fiction. Seeing as I fit into neither of those categories, I kinda assumed that having a Beta would be 'out of my league' or something like that. Really, really, really want to thank you for reviewing. I was on the verge of deleting the story, but then your review showed up and I thought 'well, even if just one person reads it, that's enough for me. It's rather ironic that this story has received the worst response out of all of my stories thus far, and yet it is one of the ones I've enjoyed writing the most. Anyway, I'll stop rambling now before this ends up longer than the fic itself! XD

SGASGASGA

After the Daedalus helped Atlantis destroy the first two hive ships, all able-bodied personnel were asked to aid in the city clean up – tagging and bagging bodies, getting medical attention for those who were in need and eliminating the remaining Wraith. While the Daedalus prepared to go after the next wave of hive ships, Sheppard volunteered to join one of the clean up crews.

It was his particular crew that discovered what had become of Captain Webb's security team, which had been led by Captain Radner. They found the team on one of the outer walkways around the East Pier's central tower. Sergeants McCallister and Schultz were both DOA, McCallister appeared to have been in the vicinity of a grenade blast and Schultz had become Wraith fodder. Captain Radner was just regaining consciousness as they arrived, but didn't seem to be too badly injured. Captain Webb was found unconscious on the ground beside a dead Wraith. Her left arm was at an entirely unnatural angle and her right arm, though now limp, was still grasping the handle of a knife, which was buried hilt-deep in the Wraith's chest, presumably in its heart. There seemed to have been a bit of a struggle, as the Wraith's hand remained firmly grasped around the Captain's right wrist. Webb had also sustained a head injury which was bleeding profusely, and further inspection showed large mottled patches of discolouration covering most of her ribs.

"Dr Beckett, I'm going to need a medical team to the East Pier. We have two officers down, both with possible head injuries and one with possible internal bleeding. Also, if you can manage it please send a stretcher. We haven't ruled out the possibility of spinal damage."

"Aye Major, I'll send someone down as soon as we can spare it. Are the patients conscious?"

"Captain Radner has just regained consciousness and seems to be semi-coherent. Captain Webb is still unconscious and is not responding to stimuli."

"A medical team is on their way. I advise you to wait there until they arrive, then continue on your sweep. ETA is five minutes. Beckett out."

Three days later, Sheppard once again encountered Michelle on the balcony. This time she seemed to notice his arrival, though, because almost as soon as he stepped out onto the balcony he heard a small, "Hello, sir," come from Webb, without her even having to turn to know who it was.

"Good afternoon, Captain. Just out of curiosity, how did you know it was me?"

"There's only one person on this expedition that can make the city react the way it does around you." Sheppard raised his eyebrows and she continued, still not turning to face him, "I have the gene naturally, just not very strong. It's not particularly useful, seeing as I don't do much anyway, but it can come in handy."

"I see. So how are you feeling? Are you even allowed to be out here? Beckett can be very vengeful toward people who escape his lair of evil, trust me, I know from experience. No offence, but you didn't seem very healthy when we found you the other day."

"The infirmary staff agreed to let me have some breathing time. Let me think things over. Besides, I'm as good as new now," Sheppard raised and eyebrow again, looking pointedly at the plaster cast which now adorned her left arm. "Well, good as can be expected, all things considered."

"All things considered," John agreed. "But really, are you sure you're ok to be out here?"

"Yeah. I needed to get out of that damn infirmary. I was in a coma for two of the three days I was there and I'm already sick of it."

"You were in a coma? That doesn't sound too good."

"I had a concussion and slipped into a coma, it was no biggie. Aside from that I have a few cracked ribs and broken arm, but otherwise I'm fine. They almost sent me back to Earth when I remained unresponsive, but they weren't sure if it might have caused my…condition to deteriorate."

She still hadn't turned away from the ocean, and it was beginning to make John uneasy. He joined her at the railing, leaning against it and enjoying the cool ocean breeze. Michelle sighed.

"I'm really going to miss this place."

"You going somewhere?"

"Sir, I'd like you to consider this as my official resignation from the Atlantis expedition and the United States Air Force. I'd also request that I be assigned a place on the next personnel exchange with the SGC."

"Can I at least ask why you would want to do that?"

"I don't, not really. I just figure that if I make the decision to leave rather than waiting for the medical staff to order me back to Earth, I'll be better off. If I have to leave on a medical recommendation, chances are that sooner or later I'll be assigned another post. If I leave by myself I have a chance of having the semblance of a normal civilian life…well, phone tabs, surveillance, etc not withstanding."

"What makes you think Beckett's going to order you back to Earth? I thought you said you were getting better now," Sheppard was clearly puzzled. Studying her profile he noticed the single tear silently coursing down had cheek.

"Between everything that's been going on lately I haven't really had time for a full check-up. It wasn't till I was injured that we found out, and if they hadn't had to do a full scan to check for internal bleeding they might not have picked it up then, what with all the hurry they're in, trying to deal with all the wounded from the attack…"

Sheppard was beginning to get worried now, and he was getting the distinct impression that whatever she was about to tell him, he wasn't going to like it. Despite that she had only been on an offworld team for less than two weeks, Captain Webb had proven to be a valuable asset and a very promising soldier. He sincerely hoped that there was nothing, other than the obvious ofcourse, wrong with her health. She was good at following orders, but also knew when to break the chain of command. She understood how Sheppard thought and rationalised things well, unlike some of the marines John had had the misfortune of commanding on this expedition.

Michelle scrubbed a hand over her face, trying to arrange her thoughts. "The scan managed to pick up something that, had we been on Earth, would probably not have been picked up with the same procedure…According to the scanners I'm three weeks pregnant. It's a small miracle that the baby managed to survive at all, considering the injuries I sustained. If I had known…I don't know what I would have done. I don't know what I can do. The most reasonable thing to do would be to return to Earth and turn in my wings. I've become a liability to the expedition and I'm not much use anymore, not that I really was in the first place."

"Don't say that. This is a great thing. You know, your little tyke is gonna be among the first of the new generation of Atlanteans. You should be proud."

"Even if I could convince the SGC to allow me to stay, there's no way the medical staff would approve. As much as I hate to admit it, we are at war. There's no place for children in war."

"I will _personally_ do everything I can to make sure you're allowed to stay on Atlantis. You're a member of the US military, and you're a member of this expedition, so you're my responsibility. I'm sure the Athosians would be more than willing to help you out if you need anything, and Beckett is a very capable doctor…"

"I wish it were that simple. I don't think I could bear to expose and innocent child to the Wraith, and to stay here would just be begging for it. I…I considered having an abortion. I just couldn't do it, though. My fiancé is dead, but now there's a part of him growing inside me…It scares me half to death just to think of it. If I were to stay I'd be a single parent in a Wraith inhabited galaxy."

"For what it's worth, you wouldn't be alone."

She finally turned to look at him, a small smile gracing her delicate features. "I appreciate the sentiment, John." She checked her watch, "I should go before Beckett sends his minions after me. As soon as I'm released I'll go write up my formal resignation, but I'd appreciate it if you could forewarn Dr Weir. The quicker we get this over with, the better. Goodnight John. Goodbye."

With that, she left the balcony, leaving John alone to watch the silent 'Lantean city as the automated lighting systems began switching to night.

SGASGASGA

Where do you guys think I should go from here? Should I send her back to Earth, or convince them to let her stay? Kill the baby and return her to active duty? Kill the fic and return to my TV set? Review and let me know!

Coming up:

Chapter 3 – Caught

_After re-gagging all the prisoners, Governor Detronius addressed the camera again. "Now then, I am sorry for your loss Dr Weir, but I am sure you know the burdens of leadership. I am simply doing what I must to defend my people from the Wraith. If you will excuse me, I now have business to attend to. Good day and good bye, Doctor Weir."_


	3. Caught

Whoo! Thankyou to everyone who has reviewed so far! YOU ALL ROCK:-D Also, I'm not sure if this Chapter is a bit too much, but one of the reasons for it was so I could have a way to kill off Michelle and/or the baby if you thought that it was a bad plot. If there's anything you would like to see happen in the story, just tell me and I can put it in for you. At the moment I'm basically taking this chapter by chapter and seeing where it goes, but I might have to do something of consequence at some point in time. Anyhow, on with the show!...Well, on with the story, anyway…

SGASGASGA

"Doctor Weir, unscheduled off-world activation," announced the new tech, recently arrived from the Daedalus as a replacement for Dr Grodin.

"Do we have an IDC?" Dr Weir asked, striding over to the balcony looking over the Stargate.

"No ma'am, still no IDC. We're receiving a video feed, patch it through?"

"Yes, thankyou. Put it up on the main screen."

The tech quickly did as he was bid; patching the video/audio feed they were receiving through to the main control room screen. On the screen appeared the face of a man whom Dr Weir did not recognise, but once he began talking she recognised his voice as being that of the governor of a planet that one of her teams was currently trying to broker a trade with. As she looked at the screen, Elizabeth was vaguely aware of her commanding military officer – the newly promoted Lt. Col. John Sheppard – joining her side to watching the transmission.

"This is Governor Detronius of the Kelnar people. Might I speak with the leader of your facility?"

Elizabeth nodded to the new tech and he connected a return audio transmission. "This is Dr Weir. Might I ask what the reason for your call is, Governor Detronius? I was under the impression that one of my teams was currently on Kelnar negotiating a trade. Is there a problem?"

"I'm afraid so, Dr Weir. We seem to have hit a slight _snag_ in the trade agreements."

John swallowed dryly. That didn't sound good. He knew that it had been a bad idea to continue this trade. Negotiations with these people had begun weeks ago, before the siege on Atlantis. They had opened the trade talks with Lieutenant Reese's team and had mostly been dealing with Captain Webb, as she had the most negotiating experience of the team members. After the Atlantis doctors had found out about Captain Webb's condition, she had been placed on light duty only. Unfortunately, the Governor had refused to proceed negotiating with any other team. To invite new people to the trade the process would have to begin all over again, and neither party was willing to do all three weeks of negotiations again. Reluctantly, John and Elizabeth had cleared Michelle for duty once her injuries had healed. At least the connections had already been established, which minimised the chances of encountering hostilities.

Returning his attention to the screen, John listened as Detronius continued.

"You see, Kelnar has recently been visited by the Wraith. Most fortunately, they did not come to destroy us. The Wraith told us that if we were to encounter any people who wore a uniform matching a very specific description, we were to contact the Wraith immediately. In return for giving them captives, the Wraith have promised us amnesty from culling." Detronius moved the camera around. The room he was in seemed bland and dank, with no notable features of any sort. On the far side of the room, Weir and Sheppard were angry but not entirely surprised to see Lieutenant Reese's team, all gagged, unconscious and bound to chairs.

As the camera focussed on them, some of the team began to stir. Lieutenant Reese was sporting a rather nasty black eye, but that seemed to be the extent of the damage. From what could be seen on the camera, Dr Ingram and Captains Pearce and Webb all just looked to have minor cuts and bruises.

"I am, however, not a fool," the Governor continued after a moment, "I am smart enough to realise that for the Wraith to go to such desperate measures simply to take a few people, there must be something special about you. I also know enough to believe that it is most probably that even if we hand over your people, they will not honour their end of the bargain. To that end, I am willing to make you a deal."

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but it doesn't exactly seem like our last deal went so well," Weir said, coldly analysing the situation.

"Ah, but you have not even heard our offer yet. If the Wraith want you so badly it is obvious that you must have something that is of value to them. If you can propose a suitable trade, we will not hand your people over to the Wraith. However, if you choose not to deal with us, or if you truly do not have anything that could be of value to us, we will have no choice but to find out if the Wraith will uphold their promise."

"I'm sorry, Governor, but I'm afraid we have nothing of value here. Our city was recently destroyed and we have not yet had time to establish ourselves again. I also feel the need to point out that I will not deal with terrorists," Elizabeth announced. John looked at her meekly – if glares could kill, that screen would be dead.

"Then I am sorry also, Doctor Weir, but I feel there is no need to continue this conversation. I am willing, as a small atonement, to allow each of your people to give you a last message."

First moving to Lieutenant Reese, Detronius untied his gag to allow him to speak.

"I just want to say that you're doing the right thing, Doctor Weir," Reese said resignedly. "Can you contact my sister and tell her goodbye for me?" Weir nodded silently, knowing that Reese did not need a verbal reply to know that his request had been accepted.

Leaving him ungagged, Detronius moved onto the next chair, containing Dr Ingram. "Please tell Dr Zelenka to finish my research on the hydraulic transference systems," she stated clearly. John was impressed. Lieutenant Reese had trained his geeks well. John had almost given up on the possibility of making Rodney act reasonably in tense situations, but obviously the task _was_ possible, even if it was just barely so. But then again, Rodney was about twice a potent as some of the other scientists, so maybe it was impossible.

The next was Captain Webb. "You know sir, I think I'm beginning to regret staying…wait…nope, no I'm not. Wouldn't have missed it for the world," she commented, plastering a smirk on her face. Even so, John did not miss the distant, fearful look in her eyes. Her body might be chained to a chair on that alien planet, but her mind certainly wasn't. If he had to guess, John would say her mind was somewhere in Iraq after having a plane shot down. "Sorry we didn't recognise the ambush sooner, sir, but if there's a next time I'll try a little harder to not get caught. Dr Weir, before I go I'll just say thankyou for the opportunity to come here. Well, not _here_, but you know what I mean. I've had a hell of a time, I just wish it had lasted longer."

Detronius moved finally onto Captain Pearce, who, having time to think, had obviously decided what he was going to say. To be honest, none of the people standing in the control room would have guessed what he said.

"I agree with Captain Webb," he began, "in that I would just like to thank you, Dr Weir, and Col. Sheppard, for giving me the opportunities I've had. But I'd also like to comment, since it might be the last thing you ever here from me: Kavanaugh, you are a spineless, weaselly jerk. And you _really_ need to wash your hair." More than half the occupants of the control room simply stared at the screen with surprise. Ofcourse every-one _thought_ that, but no-one ever really had the courage to tell Kavanaugh that. If Captain Pearce managed to make it back to Atlantis, he was definitely going to receive some sort of award or medal from both the scientific and military staff. Hell, even Dr Weir and Col Sheppard were both contemplating giving him a crown, sceptre and promotion.

After re-gagging all the prisoners, Governor Detronius addressed the camera again. "Now then, I am sorry for your loss Dr Weir, but I am sure you know the burdens of leadership. I am simply doing what I must to defend my people from the Wraith. If you will excuse me, I now have business to attend to. Good day and good bye, Doctor Weir."

The screen went back to schematics of Atlantis as the transmission ended.

"Burden of leadership my ass!" ground Sheppard.

Elizabeth turned to face him. "Colonel, go rescue our people," she said, effectively giving him permission to launch a rescue mission. Colonel Sheppard did not bother wasting time responding, instead he left the control room to organise a rescue mission. He knew Elizabeth would not be offended by his lack of reply – their people were about to be handed to the Wraith, every second counted.

SGASGASGA

Well, what do you think about this latest plot development? Too much, or is it alright? Review and let me know what you think!

PS: Before posting this I just managed to finish chapters 4, 5 and 6. I will post one per day for the next few days, and hopefully by the time they are all up I will have completed the chapters to follow them as well.

Coming up:

Chapter 4 – Fighting

_The two guards stopped on either side of the cell door, each holding a stunner, while the white-haired Wraith continued into the cell until it stood barely a foot away from Lt Reese. "We wish to know the location of Earth," it hissed, staring down at the soldier._

"_I'm sorry, but that's classified information .You're going to have to get security clearance before I can disclose that information." Well, now the Wraith looked thoroughly pissed – as if it hadn't before._


	4. Fighting

A/N: I realise that for each chapter less and less people are reading, but such is life (famous last words). I'm going to continue this because, believe it or not, I actually enjoy writing this story and would like to continue. I admit, it is disheartening to know that I have like…what, four, maybe five readers? Oh well. Ooh, bonus points for anyone who knows the person who was responsible for the famous last words "Such is life". Anyhow, thankyou to everyone who keeps reading and reviewing, you make doing this worth while.

SGASGASGA

When Michelle next awoke she had no idea where she was, though from the very organic design of the cell and the web-like structures acting as bars, she could hazard a guess. Suddenly her throat felt very dry. Looking around, she saw the other members of her team scattered around the cage, all unconscious. Crawling over to each of them in turn she checked their pulse and then shook them awake. None of them seemed to be badly injured, thankfully, though all of them – herself included – had rather nasty bumps on the back of their heads, thanks to their Kelnari captors introducing them to the butts of Kelnari guns. Their guards had obviously knocked them unconscious so they would not know where they were being taken – or would not resist.

After making sure that everyone was relatively unharmed and coherent, she crawled over to one of the cell corners and huddled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them protectively. Before coming to Atlantis she had not exactly been the most sociable person. In school she had preferred to distance herself from other people, and while attending the Academy had made her a little more open, it was not until she reached Atlantis that she truly understood the value of having lots of friends. Even so, it was hard to break old habits. Occasionally, especially when in very trying circumstances, she could not help but to fall back into her old ways.

After a while of staring blankly at the cell door, Michelle began to zone out. Her mind drifted back to what seemed like years ago, standing on her favourite balcony on all of Atlantis, surrounded by beautiful architecture, seemingly endless ocean and a gorgeous star-filled sky, with James kneeling before her, holding out the most beautiful ring she had ever seen and asking her to marry him. Her response had been instantaneous. Back then everything had been perfect. She had just come to live in the lost city of Atlantis and the man she loved was proposing to her.

Thinking about James made her mind drift further back, before Atlantis. James had always been for her when she needed him. They had first met at the Academy. He was almost two years older than her, but they were in the same year level. He was fairly smart and always very witty with a great sense of humour, though she noticed that he did tend to become very nervous in some stressful situations. He had been there after Iraq, helping her get rid of the bad memories. Looking back, she supposed that must have been about the time she began to think of him as more than just a friend. They had started dating about six months later, although they had always been careful to keep their relationship from their superiors.

Michelle was shaken from her reverie by someone gently shaking her shoulder. Bringing herself back to reality, she saw Captain Pearce looking at her with a concerned gaze. "Huh?" she mumbled, rather unintelligently.

"I was just asking if you were alright," he said softly.

"Oh, sorry. I guess I just zoned out a bit, but I'm fine," she said with a forced smile, although as she did she realised the pain pounding through her skull like one of the Atlantean uber-hurricanes. _Damn it, _she thought,_ concussion_.

Pearce didn't seem too convinced by her answer, but let it slide. "Alright, just let me know if you need anything. They took all our weapons, but we still have our tac vests, so we have basic field medical supplies and some power bars and water, which should help us a bit. Lt Reese and Dr Ingram are trying to brainstorm a plan of action, but for the moment I think the only thing we can do is wait." Pearce, she had found, was good at keeping a clear head in dangerous situations. He seemed to be a few years younger than Colonel Sheppard and had arrived recently on the Daedalus. He wore his chocolate brown hair in a cut very similar to that of Major Lorne, another of the new soldiers who had arrived on the Daedalus since the siege.

A loud sound in the corridor drew the attention of all four team members. Webb grimaced at the sound and brought a hand up to her throbbing temples, drawing a questioning glance from Pearce. "Concussion," she grumbled reluctantly, keeping her eyes locked on the corridor as a white haired Wraith and two Wraith guards came around the corner and walked very deliberately towards the cell. As they approached, the plant-like webs that constituted the cell door withdrew.

The 'Lanteans all stood up and faced the Wraith, trying to stay as calm as possible, although Doctor Ingram could not hide the look of utmost fear on her face. Lieutenant Reese stepped forward, "What do you want?" he demanded.

The two guards stopped on either side of the cell door, each holding a stunner, while the white-haired Wraith continued into the cell until it stood barely a foot away from Lt Reese. "We wish to know the location of Earth," it hissed, staring down at the soldier.

"I'm sorry, but that's classified information .You're going to have to get security clearance before I can disclose that information." Well, now the Wraith looked thoroughly pissed – as if it hadn't before.

"You _will_ tell me the location of Earth, or you will have the life drained from you – year by agonising year!"

"I'm sorry, but you don't have the required security clearance," Lt Reese persisted. Michelle had to hand it to him, it took a damn brave man to stand up to a Wraith, let alone crack jokes in it's ugly face.

The Wraith hissed furiously and drew it's hand back, before plunging it toward Lieutenant Reese's Chest. He screamed as the hand made contact, but the screaming didn't stop then. It just went on and on as her had his life drained away just as the Wraith had promised. Michelle couldn't bear to watch, so as her team's leader was aged before their eyes she was forced to look away, feeling the bile rise in her throat. Dr Ingram burst into a fit of hysterical tears, making Pearce walk over and turn her away from the horrid spectacle, trying his best to comfort the very scared scientist. Even he was not able to bring himself to look at the way Reese's body withered, still screaming almost inhumanely.

Once the Wraith was done, all that remained of the stoic soldier was an old, withered body. Captain Pearce ushered Dr Ingram over to a corner of the cell, planting himself firmly between the scientist and the Wraith.

The Wraith drew it's head back and sniffed the air as if searching for something, looking around the cell until it's eyes came to rest on Captain Webb. As it headed toward her she accepted the unspoken challenge by taking a step toward the Wraith, despite every fibre of her being urging her to step away from it, to _run!_

"You will tell me the location of Earth, or you shall meet the same end as your comrade!" The foul thing said, it's eyes glittering maliciously as though it already knew that she would undoubtedly give it the information it desired.

She braced herself, then answered, "I'm sorry, but Lieutenant Reese was right – You don't have the proper security clearance."

For a brief second Michelle swore she could see a look of astonishment cross over it's pale features. "_You_," it sneered, "you are with child, and yet you would still defy me?"

"'Fraid so," she answered, shrugging, "I never was really good at the whole 'sharing' thing, sorry…wait, no, I don't think….nope, definitely not sorry."

The Wraith growled angrily at her defiance, and began to pull it's hand back again. For a moment Michelle was sure that this was it – end of the line. Then, as she straightened up a little, she noticed something. The little flick-knife that she hid in a secret pocket in the waste-band of her pants was still there! When Pearce had said that their weapons had been taken she had just assumed it was gone too, her head pounding too much to really concentrate. Reaching up as fast as she possibly could, a swift kick of adrenaline giving her just the boost she needed to push away the shroud of fog that had been occupying her mind from the concussion, she pulled the knife out of it's hidden holster, flicking it open, desperately trying to beat the Wraith's hand as it's plundered ominously toward her chest. Before the Wraith had noticed her movements, the knife blade was driven through it's hand, then it's heart, then across it's throat before it had a chance to fall.

Captain Pearce reacted quickly, tackling one of the Wraith guards to the ground. The other shot with it's stunner, narrowly missing Webb's head. She ran at it and tackled, much in the same way that Pearce had to the other guard. Using all her strength she forced it's head forward and drove her knife into it's neck, to where she assumed it's carotid artery (if it had one) should be.

As she had done that, Captain Pearce had managed to wrestle the stunner off his guard and stabbed it the Wraith through with the long, pointy end of the stunner. They still had no idea _why_ the stunners had those pointy ends, because the only thing they were ever used for, it seemed, was to stab the Wraith.

By the time both the guards were down, the first Wraith was beginning to get up again. Pearce wheeled around and shot it with the now blood-covered stunner, then he shot the bodies of the other two Wraith for good measure.

"What do we do now," Michelle asked him, trying to weigh up their options in her mind, but inevitably failing as that annoying fog had returned. She walked over to Dr Ingram and helped the shaking scientist up from where she had huddled in the corner when the fighting began.

"We should keep moving," he said, retrieving a smaller stunner-pistol from the immobile body of the white-haired Wraith and handing it to Dr Ingram, who had now stopped shaking a little, but was still quite obviously scared within an inch of her life.

Michelle nodded in agreement, "No doubt they will have alerted the other Wraith to our escape. Goddamn telepathy. We should leave this area of the ship immediately."

"So we're definitely a hive?" Pearce clarified, "I thought we must have been, but I wasn't sure."

"Judging by the size, this is too big to be a cruiser, and the Wraith don't seem to have any stationary bases of operation, so I should think it's relatively safe to assume that we're on a hive. Now, if I remember what I've read about hive ship schematics, we should be on one of three prison levels. Only the back half of the prison levels have open cells, so we're definitely in the back half of the ship," she wracked her brains for more information, but that damn fog was proving to be very, very annoying," um…the direction the corridor is going means we're on the left hand side of the ship. If we continue down to where it ends, I'm pretty sure we should be able to gauge what level we're on by looking at where the corridors head from there."

SGASGASGA

I apologise for the mistakes in this chapter, but I honestly couldn't be bothered proof reading it (sorry). Instead, I set to work on another chapter. You see, I realised that in order to do the little teasers at the end of the chapter, I had to have the story done at least one chapter in advance (smart move --).

Coming up:

Chapter 5 – Escaping

_Despite be able to move a little more offensively now it was still very slow going. Pearce had taken one of the larger knives that they had picked up and given the other to Dr Ingram, instructing her carefully that should she need to take down a Wraith, the best way would probably be to catch it by surprise and slit it's throat, making sure to push it's head forward first so that the artery that carried the main blood supply to the brain would not be protected by the windpipe._


	5. Escaping

A/N: It's me again:D

I'd like to give a shout-out to all my readers, but most notably to Storm Herder, Aria DeLoncray, Lady Dark Hope and Aaunty Pasta – You are all the most AWESOME people I know! I just want to thankyou for your continued support with this fic, 'cause without it I would have stopped writing after chapter one! You guys are the reason I keep going with this, and if I could buy you all lots and lots of chocolate cake, I would!

SGASGASGA

Once they got down to the end of the corridor – taking twice as much time as it would usually take, because of having to dodge Wraith – Michelle noted the intersection and surmised that they were on the middle prison level, though she wished that she had a scientist there that could confirm her guess. While it was true that they did have a scientist there, unfortunately Doctor Ingram was one of the scientists responsible for studying irrigation systems to improve farming, as well as researching good methods of propagation to use in the greenhouses that the Lantean botanists were creating. The only reason that Captain Webb knew as much as she did was because she had spent many hours subtly looking over the shoulders of Dr McKay and Dr Zelenka, studying some of the various things that they would put up on the screens in the Control Room to present to Dr Weir.

While McKay was completely oblivious to her little studies, she found that Zelenka would sometimes catch her looking and deliberately point out a few extra details, or shift a little so she had a better view of the screen. Occasionally he would even invite her down to the labs to help him work. At first she had declined, but when Radek offered that she go down to the labs on the premise of using her gene on something or delivering a message, she simply couldn't refuse. Now she was very, very glad she hadn't refused.

Thankfully Dr Ingram, unlike some of the other scientific staff, knew when to keep her trap shut, and thus stayed completely silent and submissive as they directed her around the ship.

"We're on the third level," Michelle said with complete confidence that she did not feel. "I don't know the exact way, but I know the general direction to one of the armouries. We should get what we can there and then head to the Dart Bay."

"You think we can fly a Dart out of here?"

"No, I highly doubt that. But I think I might be able to rig up a small, subspace locator beacon-thing to send a signal to Atlantis. Which is why we'll also need to stop at a door along the way and grab some wires. If all goes well we could just use one of the doors to the Dart Bay and maybe hotwire it shut in the process. Just so you know, though, I'm not exactly expecting all to go well."

Doctor Ingram gave her a strange look, "I did not know that you were on the scientific staff, you wear the military colours…"

Michelle cut the older, Greek woman off with a cold stare, "I'm not on the scientific staff. I wear the military colours."

She felt a little bad for snapping at the scientist, but her head was really giving her hell, and she didn't want people thinking she was a nerd – she was already having a hard enough time fitting in and definitely did not require a repeat of her school days by having the cool kinds laughing at her behind her back (chances were that those types of kids now made up the majority of the Atlantis military sect. Besides, even if the military would accept that she was a closet geek, she knew there was no way that she would be able to get away without getting crap from people like Kavanaugh). She supposed that at least she had not been the type of geek who often acted as a punching back for the bigger kids. They had only laughed behind her back because despite her thin frame they knew she could pack a punch. The only reason she hadn't given Blake Rogers a nice black eye in eighth grade was because she didn't want to get caught being the instigator of a fight.

Shaking her head to clear away the digressive thoughts, she returned her attention back to dodging Wraith as they continued in the general direction of one of the small transport-things that the Wraith used to travel between the levels of the ship. They had been extremely close to being caught at least seven times now, though one did work to their advantage when they were forced to ambush a negligent pair of Wraith, and ended up with two more knives and an extra stunner pistol because of it.

Despite be able to move a little more offensively now it was still very slow going. Pearce had taken one of the larger knives that they had picked up and given the other to Dr Ingram, instructing her carefully that should she need to take down a Wraith, the best way would probably be to catch it by surprise and slit it's throat, making sure to push it's head forward first so that the artery that carried the main blood supply to the brain would not be protected by the windpipe.

Michelle had opted to keep her trusty little knife as opposed to the larger, unfamiliar Wraith one. She had had it for years and was very proficient with it. In fact, she had got it from her great grandfather when she turned fifteen and never been without it since, taking it absolutely everywhere with her and always sleeping with it stashed under her pillow. She had even come up with some rather proficient ways of getting around airport security with knives, just so she would always have it with her –probably not exactly the most legal thing to do, but she did it anyway. Having the knife with her made he feel safe, and now being in the Pegasus Galaxy she made sure to double check every time she left her room that she had it with her. She had even started taking into the bathroom with her and sitting it on the sink when she showered.

Ducking and weaving they through the maze of organic corridors they eventually managed to reach the transporter and select the correct level for one of the secondary armouries, which were generally less heavily guarded than the primary ones. Before they left the transporter, Michelle quickly pried the cover of one of the control panels open and pulled out some wires that she might need later.

The three of them managed to reach the armoury with fairly limited difficulty, and the armoury they had chosen turned out to be less heavily guarded than they had suspected it might be, figuring that the Wraith would have doubled the security on key places such as armouries, but evidently they had not expected their captives to know their way around a hive ship so well, probably doubting that they would be able to figure out how to get to a different level, let alone find an armoury.

They drew the Wraith away from their posts cautiously, then swooped in as quickly as they could. Both the Captains managed to get some pretty nasty bruises from the fight, but they managed to kill the five-strong guard party. Dr Ingram even managed to kill one, though she was then rather disgusted by the oozy black blood that now stained the knife she held.

Stocking up on as many Wraith grenades, stunner pistols and knives as they could without impeding their movement too much, they decided how best to get to their next goal. To their delight, while Dr Ingram was only really a botanist, she was also fairly proficient with computers and after a few minutes of tampering (even though none of them could read Wraith) she managed to bring up a schematic of the hive on one of the system monitors located in the armoury. Despite the labels of everything being in Wraith, Michelle had seen enough of the schematics during Zelenka and McKay's little presentations that she could point out key areas of the ship and how to get there.

Eventually they planned and memorised a route to the Dart Bay which they figured was the least likely to have many Wraith patrolling it. By now, even Dr Ingram was starting to get used to the running and ducking and weaving and was becoming rather proficient with a stunner pistol.

At the Dart Bay they found a pair of Wraith by one of the doors, but the bay was otherwise deserted, making Captain Webb think that they must either be in hyperspace, or very, very cocky Wraith.

They snooped around for a minute until Captain Pearce found a Dart in a nice little defensible corner for Webb to pull apart. Guessing what different components did, Michelle, with the help of Ingram and Pearce, finally managed to build a device and set it to the Daedalus' frequency. All that was left to do was wait.

SGASGASGA

Hope you liked it! I know I'm dragging this out a bit, but what can I say, I'm cruel ;-P Well, until tomorrow: Peace, Love and Unity man! Yeah!

Coming up:

Chapter 6 – Rescue

"_John?" He was already half way to the door of the Control Room when Elizabeth called his name, causing him to turn and face her. "Bring them back," she said simply. Nodding, he left to ready the teams._


	6. Rescue

A/N: Thankyou to everyone for their continued reviewing, you really make writing this fic worth while. It's great to know that you are liking the story, because I really enjoy writing it for you. I'm not sure if I'm getting back into my habit of glancing over a lot of details, but if I am, could someone just let me know so I can try and snap myself back into shape. Also, I'm afraid I'm going to have to drag this rescue thing on just a little more, but if you'll bear with me, at least it's a decent plot…half-decent…semi-decent…oh well, close enough anyway! Kudos to all my readers, even if you don't leave a review it's still great that you take the time to read this. Anyway, I don't think I have anything important to say, other than enjoy. So enjoy!

SGASGASGA

"Damnit!" John growled, kicking one of the beautiful Lantean walls. Ignoring the spike of pain it sent up his leg, he continued with his pacing. One of his teams was out there in the hands of the Wraith, or dead – a possibility he didn't want to consider – and he couldn't do a damn thing about it until they knew more.

The rescue mission had been a failure. By the time they had reached the planet it had already been completely decimated by the Wraith, and the lost men and women were nowhere to be found. Obviously Detronius' deal had gone sour. The fool deserved it, but Sheppard knew that his people probably did not. They should not have had to pay such a high price for the ignorance of their leader.

John still had a team on standby, ready to go as soon as there was any indication of where the missing personnel might be. Each hour that passed made John lose a little more hope of finding Reese's team alive. An hour on a Wraith ship could be practically an eternity, John knew from his various encounters. Not to mention that one of the captives was a pregnant woman, and another a scientist who was not really conditioned for fighting.

A little burst of static came across his headset, before Elizabeth's voice came across his radio, "Colonel Sheppard, could you please report to the control room immediately."

Sprinting, John made it to the control room from the gym in less than two minutes.

"You called?" he said to Elizabeth, only slightly out of breath.

"Colonel Caldwell just sent a message. He says that they have picked up a distress beacon on the Daedalus' main frequency, and that Hermiod believes that it is an anomaly because the Wraith do not use that particular frequency for some reason. They did a sweep of the space it was transmitting from and have found a hive ship in hyperspace, which they believe will stop to feed in approximately two hours on a planet we know to be accessible by Stargate. Caldwell wants to know what you make of it."

"Can you get me the gate address for that planet, I'll go get the standby team and a couple of 'Jumpers ready," Sheppard said, confounding Doctor Weir completely.

"John, we don't know what is making the transmission. There are probably thousands of other things that could be responsible."

He shook his head in reply, "It's Captain Webb." Elizabeth just raised an eyebrow and gave him a look that clearly meant 'explain'. "She did the same thing in Iraq. She was a POW there for a while and when she escaped she built a transmitting device and set it to the last frequency she knew the Air Force to be using. She's doing the same thing again."

Dr Weir wondered how he knew this, considering it had not been written on the personnel file she had received, and she was reasonably sure that as Expedition Leader she would have been given the up-to-date, comprehensive copy available. Still, if there was any hope that their people could still be alive it was worth investigating.

"Okay," she nodded finally. She tapped her earpiece to contact Colonel Caldwell. "Colonel Caldwell, how long would it take you to reach the point at which you believe the Wraith ship will leave hyperspace?"

"With our Asgard hyperdrive we should be able to make it inside of two hours. What are you proposing?"

"Colonel Sheppard has reason to believe that the beacon you picked up earlier was set up by our missing people. We want to launch a search and rescue mission."

Caldwell mulled it over for a minute, "You do realise that even if your missing people did set off that beacon, there's still only a slim chance of finding them alive _and_ being able to successfully extract them from the hive ship."

"I understand that, Colonel, but we have to try. Are you willing to help us," Doctor Weir asked.

"Alright. But the second something goes wrong we're leaving. We don't have the necessary armament to take on a fully functional hive ship, and I will not risk this ship or the lives of my crew to go chasing after four people that may not even be alive."

It was Sheppard who replied this time. "Yes sir, we understand. I propose we park the Daedalus just outside of sensor range, then continue in with two cloaked 'Jumpers. I think one team to each 'Jumper, plus a medical team and a scientist that knows a bit about Hive schematics. I can have everyone ready to go in about ten minutes."

"Alright. We'll have the Daedalus ready to beam you aboard in ten minutes. Caldwell out."

"John?" He was already half way to the door of the Control Room when Elizabeth called his name, causing him to turn and face her. "Bring them back," she said simply. Nodding, he left to ready the teams.

The military portion of the rescue team would already be ready to go, and the medical teams were almost constantly on stand by, so all that was left was to get the scientist. For that, he would need to venture down into the heart of the geek stronghold: the labs.

Sheppard hadn't noticed the lateness of the hour until he walked into the usually busy labs to discover that even most of the scientific personnel (which in his opinion must have been able to survive on coffee, because they practically never slept) were in their quarters asleep. This left the main lab, which was usually a hive of activity and techno-talk, fairly quiet, with most of those who were still up either driven by coffee or doddering around on the aftermath of a coffee high. It reminded Sheppard of one of his favourite quotes: "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems". Thinking of the quote made him think back guiltily to the amount of coffee he liked to drink (which incidentally happened to double when he had to do the accounting work for the military resources…well, he didn't _have_ to do it – people at the SGC were employed for that – but he liked to do it anyway. I was about as close to real maths as he could get these days, which disappointed him somewhat).

"Hi Rodney!" he said with a forced smile. "Feel like coming for a quick trip?"

"Colonel, in case you haven't noticed, it's very early in the morning and I have very important things to be doing!"

"Such as…?"

"Sleeping! Besides, what sort of a 'quick trip' would you be doing at this hour!"

"Rescue mission. We think we've located Lt Reese's team aboard a hive ship, which we assume is going to come out of hyperspace in about two hours. We want to be there to meet it and see if we can extract our people, so I figured having a scientist along would be useful if we need to do something complicated."

Rodney snorted, but before he had a chance to reply to Sheppard's request, doctor Zelenka joined the conversation. "I will go," the Czech muttered, his thick accent gradually getting better as time went by. Sheppard just raised an eyebrow in response, and McKay was doing a nice goldfish impression. I was a rather well-known fact that Zelenka strongly disliked going offworld, especially when situations requiring guns and/or fighting arose. "Michelle Webb be my best student," he explained, "would hate for much learning to go to waste." Sheppard's other eyebrow rose to meet the other. Rodney simply continued to flounder.

"If you want to go I certainly won't argue. Grab your gear as quick as you can, we're leaving from the Jumper Bay in seven minutes. I'll explain the plan on the way. The trip should take about two hours, so we'll have plenty of time to iron out any potential problems you think we might have."

"You're _volunteering_ for a _rescue mission!_" Rodney uttered in shock.

Sheppard went and got his gear, making sure he had everything he could think they would potentially need for a dangerous rescue mission such as this. Confident he had everything he would need, he headed for the Jumper Bay.

Once they were situated on the Daedalus, Sheppard explained the plan to Zelenka. He nodded at intervals, sometimes making suggestions or correcting things, until they were confident that they had a plan which would hopefully end with the extraction of their people from the hive ship. Eventually the conversation turned to why Zelenka had chosen to come on this mission, which John had to admit had surprised him, but left him with nothing but respect for the crazy-haired Czech.

"The Captain pays visits to lab in spare time and I teach her what I can. She will only come if she has excuse, though. I do not think she wants others to know of her liking of science," Zelenka explained. "Rodney does not like Captain Webb. He ignores her a lot, normal for Rodney, but still rude. He say that 'Goon Girls' have no place in science. I say the atmosphere have not enough room for his big head."

This made Sheppard grin. They were currently sitting in the Daedalus' mess hall, each sipping on their own cup of strong, military coffee. They still had half an hour before the Daedalus was due to drop out of hyperspace. John was enjoying the friendly banter with the little engineer, and couldn't help but notice how much more polite Zelenka was than Rodney. Less egotistical, too. It was a pity he didn't like to go offworld, because Sheppard could really do with someone less whiny than the hypochondriacal Dr McKay. Not that he would actually kick McKay off his team, but it would be fun to threaten him.

On that note, Sheppard drew himself back into the conversation, trying to ignore the growing dread in the back of his mind at what they might find on the other end of this rescue mission – if they found anything at all.

SGASGASGA

Thankyou for reading! Let me know what you thought of it by taking a few seconds to leave a review, please! Btw, if you have any good ideas on where I should take this, or any plot or character developments you might like to see, just drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. I'm open to criticism, though preferably construct, please!

Coming up:

Chapter 7 – Trying

"_Somehow I think you believe that just as much as I do – which is to say, not much at all. Still, it's worth a shot. The Wraith on this ship don't seem to be particularly interested in us. They wanted to know the location of Earth, but it seems to me as though they want it more so for the diplomatic leverage it would give them, rather than just because they're greedy pigs who want to suck the life out of everyone on the planet…well, they are just greedy pigs, but I'm willing to be there's a bit of the first reason in there too."_


	7. Trying

I'm really sorry, but this chapter won't have a teaser on the end. I don't have the time today to write another chapter. I have to go to Brisbane tomorrow because I was recently accepted into the Queensland Academy of the Science, Mathematics and Technology, which is a really exclusive academy that's starting up in Brisbane, and there's a "community meeting" to try and build a "sense of community among our future foundation students, teachers and parent". Unfortunately that means I won't be able to update tomorrow, but I'll try and update as soon as possible after that. Once again, thanks to everyone who keeps reading and reviewing, you make my world keep turnin'!

SGASGASGA

Meanwhile…

Captain Pearce, Captain Webb and Dr Ingram had left the Dart Bay after successfully setting the transmitter. It was only a matter of time before the ship would drop out of hyperspace for a culling, then the Dart Bay would be crawling with Wraith, so they decided to go find a nice secluded spot on the ship to hide and wait. Not that there was exactly any 'nice' secluded spots onboard a Wraith hive ship, but they made do with what they could find.

While all of them were in one piece and didn't seem to be seriously injured, it still wasn't fun to be stuck aboard a Wraith ship, especially when they weren't even sure if their people would notice the transmitter, or even if they noticed it whether or not they would respond.

Taking inventory again they ended up with three knives, two stunner pistols, one radio, some field bandages, a life signs detector that Michelle had thought to stash in her vest, enough rations for two days if they were very generous, and about enough water to last a day if they were careful. It wasn't nearly enough for any prolonged length of time, but they didn't exactly plan to be staying long.

They hadn't exactly been stopping to check their watches every five minutes, but after what had felt like a fair few hours, the radio crackled into life.

"Lt Reese, do you copy? Repeat, Lt Reese do you copy? This is Col Sheppard, if you can hear this please respond."

The three survivors exchanged a glance. Michelle had a feeling that, had they not been under the immediate threat of Wraith attack if they made too much commotion, they would have shouted and danced for joy. She glanced at Pearce, who nodded pointedly at the radio, indicating she should answer. Taking a swig from her canteen to help clear her throat after what must have been at least an hour with making a sound, she picked up the radio and pressed the talk button.

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Captain Webb. All due respect sir, you took your damn time."

She could practically hear the sigh of relief she knew her commanding officer would be breathing at the moment. "Good to hear your voice, Captain Webb. What is your status?"

"Lt Reese didn't make it, sir. I'm here with Dr Ingram and Captain Pearce. We're currently taking refuge in what seems to be a supply room of sorts to avoid the Wraith. What are you planning?"

"We currently have two cloaked 'Jumpers inbound on your position. The hive you're on has stopped for a culling and we were able to get a lift from the Daedalus. Do you know whereabouts in the hive you are?"

"Negative. I can't even remember what level we're on, sorry."

"Doctor Zelenka would like you to describe the room to him to see if he can figure out where you are. Apparently you know what architectural things to look for to help the Doctor out?"

"You've got Zelenka there? All due respect, sir, how the hell did you manage that one? And can you tell him that the room we're in is at the end of a corridor, sort of like a cul-de-sac. About 100 meters out from our position the corridor forks left and right. We know if you follow the right-hand path eventually you come to an inter-level transporter, but we're not sure about the left-hand path. Inside the room itself there is a single air duct about two inches above the floor, midway down the wall opposite the door. Above that there's a view screen, which doesn't seem to be active. It's similar to the one in the secondary armoury that displays the schematics of the hive. There are a few box-type things scattered around the place, making it slightly defensible, but the room is otherwise bare. There are no major architectural anomalies. This room is pretty much the exact definition of plain and boring."

There was silence for a moment as either John must have taken time to relay the message, or Radek must have taken some time to mull it over. "Doctor Z says that you are in a storage room, which means you're on one of the levels below the ship's main facilities but above the prison levels. He's pretty sure you're two floors down from the Dart Bay, on the mid-left section of the ship." The good thing about hives were that, unlike some ships, every level was completely different, so as to confuse people if they were to somehow escape. Fortunately for the Atlantis personnel, this meant it was much easier to figure out what level you were on simply by the lay of the corridors. "Z wants to know if you can safely make it to the Dart Bay. If we remain cloaked, we should be able to get in and get you out, hopefully without too many problems."

"Somehow I think you believe that just as much as I do – which is to say, not much at all. Still, it's worth a shot. The Wraith on this ship don't seem to be particularly interested in us. They wanted to know the location of Earth, but it seems to me as though they want it more so for the diplomatic leverage it would give them, rather than just because they're greedy pigs who want to suck the life out of everyone on the planet…well, they are just greedy pigs, but I'm willing to bet there's a bit of the first reason in there too."

"Makes sense. You said the right corridor leads to the transport? Zelenka says to take that to the level of the Dart Bay, then try and stay out of site. Once you get there keep your radio active and we'll find you."

"Roger that, Colonel Sheppard. Request to stay on radio channel two, free to speak after three clicks."

"Agreed, Captain. Good luck! Sheppard out."

Sneaking through the corridors was now aided by the discovery of the life-signs detector, which made the trip a little safer, but even so as they drew closer to the Dart Bay the Hive was a swarm of activity.

SGASGASGA

Once again, sorry for the lack of teaser, but I just didn't have time to write another chapter and get all my stuff ready to go to Brisbane. Anyway, tell me what you think of the story so far. I think I'll get them all safe and sound back on Atlantis in the next chapter, simply because this plot has been dragged along for far too long now. Please review! If nothing else, your reviews will encourage me to write the next chapter quicker!


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